Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Instantly Make Me Want To Read A Book

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week's topic: things that make me instantly want to read a book. Not in the sense of "long committee meetings" or "when my husband pops in a sports video game", but more like things about the book itself that make me want to pick it up. I try to read a pretty broad spectrum of books, but here are ten things that I get a little extra excited about when I see in a book I'm thinking about picking up.

Royalty: Not even going to lie, this is probably the top one. Both fiction and non. I love me some royalty books. Give me queens and kings and princes and princesses.

A Michigan connection: As a native Michigander, I'm always a sucker for books about my homeland.

Female friendships: Some of the deepest and most meaningful relationships in my life have been with the women that are my friends. I love reading about the platonic-but-no-less-profound-for-being-so bonds that form between women and comparing and contrasting them to my own friendships

Dysfunctional families: It's like Tolstoy said...every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Really getting into the dynamics between people that might not have picked each other, if given the chance, but are tied together by blood and love anyways is a favorite reading experience of mine.

Coming of age: The experience of growing up is a universal one, and one that I don't feel quite "done" with yet, even at 31. So stories that draw on that experience are, to me, just incredibly compelling.

Post-apocalyptic: I used to be more interested in dystopias until it seemed like they were everywhere (but not always very well done). I'm finding myself more drawn these days to books that think about the world we live in and what might happen after a catastrophic event.

Character-driven: At the end of the day, I'm happy with a book that might not have much in the way of exciting storylines as long as it creates memorable and vivid characters.

True crime: Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated with stories about awful crimes and the detectives that solved them. It's a weird morbid streak that's not something I think most people I know would think that I have.

Neurology: Oliver Sacks did it best, but I love reading about our brains and how the ways they get it right and wrong impact human lives.

Retelling: Folklore and fairy tales, those first stories that we ever know and become ingrained in us, are all the more interesting to take apart and see from another angle.

6 comments

Retellings are on my list, too! And so is the home state fixation... I totally get why you love to read books about Michigan, because that's the same reason why I love to read books about Washington! It's always fun to see characters visit the same places you know so well... even when some of the information gets a little inaccurate. :)

Oh my gosh - you just reminded me of a couple I missed! I feel like my list could have been much longer than 10! Coming of age. True Crime. Female Friendships.

And - I think it would be funny to see your list of the types you things that would make you read a book that you mentioned in your intro! Mine would be standing in line, my yelling kids (I tune out and pick up a book)...

I totally stole my husband's joke there...I told him what the TTT topic was this week and he suggested it (he told me I could appropriate it haha). Standing in line too FOR SURE: I put my book in my purse whenever I go to the grocery store!

Great list! I'm definitely a sucker for royalty, friendships, dysfunctional families, character-driven stories and retellings as well :) Oh, and coming of age! I'm 31 as well, and I also can't say no to a good coming of age story still :)